VINTAGE DOWNLAND
“A nice dry Wimbledon,” Hugo Corney told me as we stood in the vineyard he runs with his parents, “means a good harvest.”
It was one of the many things I learnt about wine-growing on my four-day bicycle tour. On a south-facing slope, cradled by the chalky South Downs, the Corneys’ Court Garden Vineyard is a snug little place steeped in history – it was farmed back in Saxon times and once belonged to Cluniac monks. Now it produces fine sparkling wines and has a whole vatful of awards to prove it.
The day before, I’d packed my pannier with a few essentials – the waterproofs were to come in very handy – and set off to visit six of the best vineyards on the South Downs, taking in some of the National Park’s historical highlights along the way. My quest to learn about English sparkling wine would
